1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a method and system for maintaining and retrieving one or more customer profiles for subsequent use by a plurality of server systems over the Internet.
2. Description of the Related Art
An increasing number of purchases are being conducted over the Internet. The Internet is a vast system of computers and computer networks that are interconnected through communication links. The interconnected computers exchange information, which may include information necessary to conduct purchases and other commercial activities over the Internet.
One component of the Internet is the World Wide Web (“the Web”), which is a globally connected network that includes multiple Web “pages”. Web pages are collections of information that can be viewed by a user through the use of browser software. Browser software is sometimes referred to herein as “a browser”. A browser is a special-purpose software application program that performs the requesting and displaying of Web pages through a communications link.
A web page can incorporate various multimedia components including text, graphics, sounds, including music and speech, animation, and video images. Web pages that include sound components can be heard as well as seen using a browser. Web pages are interconnected to one another using hypertext that allows a user to move from any Web page to another Web page, and to graphics, binary files, multimedia files, as well as any Internet resource.
The Web operates on a client/server model. The Web allows a server computer system to send graphical Web pages of information to a remote client computer system. A server computer system (“server system”) includes a hardware server as well as software Web pages that make up a Web “site” as described below. The terms for the hardware “server” and the “site” are sometimes used interchangeably.
The remote client computer system can display Web pages because it includes a browser. A user runs Web client browser software such as Netscape Navigator™ or Microsoft's Internet Explorer™ on the user's computer. The browser software acts as a client that contacts a Web server and requests information or resources. The Web server locates and then sends the information to the Web browser, which displays the results to the user on the user's computer.
Web pages are defined using a markup language called Hypertext Markup Language (“HTML”). HTML provides a standard set of tags that define how a Web page is to be displayed. HTML contains commands that are sent from the server to tell the browser on the remote client computer how to display text, graphics and multimedia files. It also contains commands for linking the Web page to other Web pages and to other Internet resources.
A Web “site” is a collection of one or more Web pages. A multiple-page web site is usually organized as a tree structure of Web pages or, less often, is organized as a linear sequence of Web pages. The term “home page” is usually used to refer to the top (tree structure) or first (linear sequence) Web page of a site. A Web site can also be organized in a random structure, but even a randomly linked Web site usually has a home page from which the rest of the Web pages are linked. The home page typically acts as an introduction to the Web site, explaining its purpose and describing the information found on the other Web pages making up the Web site.
In this way, the home page acts as an index, or table of contents, for the rest of the Web site.
Each resource (i.e., computer or Web page) of the Web is located at a unique address identifier known as a Uniform Resource Locator (“URL”). Usually, the URL of the home page of a Web site is treated as the “root” address from which the URL of the remaining Web pages in a multiple-page Web site are derived. To view a specific Web page, a client computer system (such as the user's computer in conjunction with browser software) specifies the URL for that Web page in a request. The request corresponds to the HyperText Transfer Protocol (“HTTP”). The request is forwarded to the Web server that supports that Web page. When that Web server receives the request, it sends the requested Web page to the client computer system. When the client computer system receives that Web page, the user system typically displays the Web page for the user's view.
Many vendors utilize one or more Web sites to conduct electronic commerce (“e-commerce”) over the Internet. Using a server system that includes a hardware server and a Web site, vendors can advertise and sell products. Each of the vendor's e-commerce sites may reside on the same hardware server, or they may reside on different servers. Using a browser, a user, who is a potential customer, can access the server systems to select items or services for purchase. Once the items or services are selected for purchase, then the server system processes purchaser-specific information regarding billing and shipping that may include a purchaser name, a purchaser ID, purchaser email address, shipping address, billing address, and purchaser credit card information such as account number and expiration date.
The server system may receive purchaser-specific information from at least three sources. A “cookie” may provide the information. The purchaser may also manually enter the information. In addition, a server system may provide an “express buy” mode wherein the server system accesses information that has been saved from one or more previous transactions with the same purchaser.
A cookie is a collection of data that is deposited on a user's computer hard drive when the user accesses a server system that is designed to deposit such information. The server system deposits the information for later retrieval. Upon a user's subsequent access to the server system (a “session”), the browser can retrieve such information for submission back to the server system, eliminating the need for the user to manually impart such information during each session with the server system.
Due to the sensitive nature of the purchaser-specific information outlined above, it is desirable to limit the amount of such information that a purchaser is required to submit during an e-commerce transaction. Similarly, it is desirable to limit the amount of time that a purchaser must spend in forwarding such information for each e-commerce purchase. When a purchaser selects items for purchase from multiple sites, re-entering shipping and billing information for each server system results in a time-consuming duplication of effort and may lead to frustration on the part of the purchaser.
One approach for limiting the time and effort required for purchasers to make subsequent purchases from an e-commerce Web site is to retain purchaser-specific information and retrieve it for correction or validation by the purchaser on subsequent purchases from the same site. In the context of electronic commerce over the Internet, customers have become accustomed to the server system retaining a profile of purchaser-specific shipping information and credit card information for each customer that has initiated a sales transaction from a particular e-commerce site. A user may invoke an “express buy” mode for subsequent purchases by indicating that he wishes for the server system to retrieve saved purchaser-specific information. This makes subsequent on-line purchases more efficient and less time-consuming. The retained customer profile information is referred to herein as an “express buy” profile.
One approach for an express buy mode is disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 5,960,411 entitled “Method and System for Placing a Purchase Order Via a Communications Network,” issued to Hartman, et al. Calling it a “one-click” approach, Hartman '411 discloses the retention and retrieval of purchaser-specific information for use in subsequent e-commerce purchases, but only discloses subsequent retrieval by the same server system that initially acquired the purchaser-specific information. This approach does not provide for sharing of purchaser-specific information among separate server systems.
A customer may wish to purchase goods or services from one or more multiple selling sites. The server system for each site must obtain pertinent customer profile information, such as the customer's name, credit card number, address, etc. A vendor that provides more than one e-commerce Web site typically requires purchasers to duplicate the effort of entering, correcting, and verifying purchaser-specific information for each Web site, regardless of whether the sites are owned by the same vendor. For instance, Dell Computer Corporation allows customers to transact purchases from its Gigabuys.com e-commerce Web site as well as from its Dell.com e-commerce Web site. However, in order to initiate purchase transactions, customers are required to enter their customer profile information upon the first transaction at each site. It would decrease the transaction time for each sale if each server system were to retain the customer profile information so that, upon the next purchase by the same customer on the same or another server system, the information could be quickly retrieved and modified, if necessary.
To further simplify and speed the sales transaction, it is desirable for multiple sales sites to have access to each of a plurality of express buy profiles for a purchaser. In addition to sharing saved user information among server systems, it is desirable to allow the same purchaser to define multiple sets of purchaser-specific information that can later be accessed by server systems. For instance, the same purchaser might wish to save one profile that uses a company credit card and maintains a workplace shipping address. The same purchaser might also wish to save another profile that uses a personal credit card and maintains a home shipping address.